The present invention is concerned with apparatus and methods for playing back recorded material from media, particularly, but not strictly limited to high density optical recording media such as DVD discs containing acoustic data, e.g., music. For purposes of this disclosure, the term “music” is to be understood throughout to include the possibility of video. A serious limitation of the present systems is that they record music in a studio or a concert hall and leave it to the listener/viewer (herein termed the “listener”) to adjust the playback apparatus to attempt to reproduce the artist's intended sound in a different playback site, i.e., his home, or car. However, because the recording and playback sites almost always have different acoustic characteristics, it is not feasible for the listener satisfactorily to manage the adjustment of the playback equipment.